Full Quill Ostrich Roper

[TroyWest]

I was talking with Clay B. and Crystal the other night in the chat room and they asked me to post pictures of this saddle.

I actually made this several years ago for an old trick roper. He saw the pictures of the saddle we made for Pres. Bush and called and ordered a saddle.

Then he called back and said," I've been wearing these ostrich boots for 20 yrs. and they held up real well. Whats the chances you could cover my saddle with ostrich?"

I said " I think I can do that."

It took 4 full ostrich hides to completely cover this saddle.

I'm really not a fan of ostrich saddles, but as ostrich saddle go, it turned out O.K.

Then he called back and said," I want conchos just like the ones on his saddle."

I said, I can do that."

Then he called back and said," What's the chances you could put a diamond in the middle of the star on those conchos?"

I said," I think I can do that."

Now I really had never done that before, but I figured if anybody can do it, I can learn. So I called my cousin, who cuts precious stones for a living and asked him how to do it, and he told me over the phone. Then he ordered some diamonds for me. We used what is known as a tube setting, which means a silver tube completely encircles the stone, holding it with much greater strength than a prong setting.

I sure didn't want some horse slinging his head with a bit and knocking the diamond across the arena. Anyway, here it is.

Then he told me what he wanted on the horn cap, and on the cantle plate, insisting that I use 14k gold for the letters. The small letters on the horn cap I could purchase, the letters on the cantle plate I sawed out with a jewelers saw.

Hope you enjoy the pics.

Troy

[Crystal]

Troy - Thanks for taking the time to post this. Can't say I have ever seen an ostrich saddle with diamond studded conchos before. Beautiful! Have to also say the story is as good as the conchos and plates!

Crystal

[hidepounder]

Wow Troy...you're amazing! The saddle and the silver are both beautifully done! And what a great client!

[Ian]

Wow, Troy, that's about as high end as it comes. That saddle surely has got to made the future saddlemaking books. Who says there's a recession?

[TroyWest]

Troy - Thanks for taking the time to post this. Can't say I have ever seen an ostrich saddle with diamond studded conchos before. Beautiful! Have to also say the story is as good as the conchos and plates!

Crystal

Thank you Crystal,

I thought the story might answer a few questions about how this thing came to be, and why it was done the way that it was. Thanks again.

Troy

[TroyWest]

Wow Troy...you're amazing! The saddle and the silver are both beautifully done! And what a great client!

Thanks Bob,

I really appreciate the comments. Yes, he was a great client. Someone who knew what he wanted and had the money to get it.

Troy

[TroyWest]

Wow, Troy, that's about as high end as it comes. That saddle surely has got to made the future saddlemaking books. Who says there's a recession?

Thanks Ian,

I really appreciate your comments.

Troy

[gtwister09]

Troy,

The silver work looks really nice. Not sure that I would have picked an ostrich saddle either. Your President's saddle was certainly a nice saddle and it was saved years ago in a tickler file (pictures and all). Most of the West Bros. site was placed into a tickler file.

Regards,

Ben

[jwwright]

Outstanding craftsmanship in all things concerned as usual Troy. JW

[Colman]

Troy,

That is one nice piece of Craftsmanship!

Johnny

[TroyWest]

Ben, J.W., and Johnny,

Thank you guys for your comments. I really appreciate it. I saw a full ostrich covered saddle about 20 yrs. ago at the world show in Oklahoma City. It was a sort of sea green color and frankly, I thought it was one of the ugliest saddles I've ever seen, so I was a little leery when this guy wanted one. This color is cognac, which is what he requested. It looks better than green, but you have to like ostrich. I am not an ostrich fan but I sure would build another one. Its just like lining a saddle except on top and of course very profitable without spending a huge amount of time building the saddle.

Thanks again for your comments,

Troy

[Ian]

Troy, I don't see any edge stitching. What cement did you use to adhere the skin? Is it adhered to the flesh side of the leather - leaving the underside smooth? Does cement alone hold up well, or is a saddle like that only used on rare occasions?

[Go2Tex]

Well Troy, if I ever get one of "those" clients, I know who to call for advice on the silver work! Thanks for sharing.

[ClayB]

Thanks for sharing these pictures Troy. I am not a big fan of ostrich, but I am a big fan of different, so this is really interesting. I was wondering how you did it too, if you could build a saddle out of ostrich (which I doubted) or if you had to line the leather with the ostrich. You did a really nice job of it. The silver work is really amazing!!!

Now what do we have to do the get you to post pictures of the saddle you made for the president?

[gtwister09]

Now what do we have to do the get you to post pictures of the saddle you made for the president?

Clay,

Not Troy but here's the web link...

President's Saddle

Regards,

Ben

[TroyWest]

Troy, I don't see any edge stitching. What cement did you use to adhere the skin? Is it adhered to the flesh side of the leather - leaving the underside smooth? Does cement alone hold up well, or is a saddle like that only used on rare occasions?

Ian,

It loses some detail when you make the photo computer compatible, but the edges are stitched everywhere. If you look at the closeup of the concho you'll see the stitching around the top of the seat jockey.

I used all-purpose cement. The biggest challenge, if you've ever worked with ostrich, is that it has a pretty spongy backside. I couldn't groove the top of the ostrich for stitch grooves but I did want my stitches to be countersunk. I grooved the skirting pretty deep where you normally would, then skived the outer edges of the ostrich to eliminate as much of the sponginess as possible.

Then glued it down with two coats of glue and ran a creaser on top of the ostrich to push it down in the stitch groove to see where to sew, but every edge is sewn. Apparently he rides it quite a bit. It looked fine but it looked well ridden.

He sent it to me a year ago to clean it. He had ridden with a small bottle of vaseline in his back pocket and some had squirted onto the seat. Go figure.

[TroyWest]

Thank you for your comments Clay and Go2Tex. There is certainly room for improvement in my silverwork and when I look at the Pres. saddle I see things I would do differently now than I did then in the silver and in the saddle. There is no end to learning and striving for excellence. The fun of our work is getting to be creative in design and then in execution and then you back off and look at it and critique it. There are always areas to improve but it's still a lot of fun to me.

Just so you know I no longer work at West Bros., but I built a shop at my home about 5 yrs. ago. I live a mile down a dirt road and mostly build saddles, along with a few silver buckles. My brothers shop is on a highway where he has a lot of walk-in traffic and does a ton of repairs as well as a few saddles.

[Bob]

Troy, that's very nice workmanship.

[TroyWest]

Hello Bob,

Haven't seen you post in a while. Thanks for the kind word.

Troy

[Grunt]

Troy,

THanks for posting those pics. Your work is stunnig and usual.

[Jdavies]

Beautiful saddle, always admired your work. I saw a barrel racer you made some time ago, my mother is also a barrel racer and being her son I am constantly building something new for her tack room. She will be recieving a new saddle for her birthday in feb. I will post pics soon. So please critique it for me.

[TroyWest]

Troy,

THanks for posting those pics. Your work is stunnig and usual.

Grunt, Thanks for the compliment. I appreciate it.

Troy

[TroyWest]

Beautiful saddle, always admired your work. I saw a barrel racer you made some time ago, my mother is also a barrel racer and being her son I am constantly building something new for her tack room. She will be recieving a new saddle for her birthday in feb. I will post pics soon. So please critique it for me.

Jdavies, Thanks for the kind word. Looking forward to seeing your saddle.

Troy